Blindness is no barrier to learning karate for Va man

TAMMIE SMITH,Richmond Times-Dispatch

Tuesday

Jan 31, 2012 at 3:15 AM

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The instructions came fast.

"Let's do No. 2. Turn that foot more. A little more to your left. Go."

Sam Justice, an eighth-degree black belt in karate, coached John Hunt, a newbie who earned a yellow belt in August and who is working on his orange belt. Hunt moved smoothly, adjusting his steps and position as Justice asked. No. 2 started with a backfist, jab and reverse punch.

For a solid hour, in the karate studio on West Broad Street in Henrico County, the lesson went like that.

Hunt, 51, did not stop to take a sip of water and barely slowed to catch his breath. When the hour was up, he was covered with sweat and breathing hard. He carefully made his way off the mat and to his wife, following her voice.

Charlotte Hunt took the arm of her husband, who is blind, and guided him to a chair.

"So far, so good," said John Hunt, who aspires to be a black belt. "It's going to take me about six years to get it. I'm working on it."

A little more than a year ago, John Hunt could see. Every day, he would take Brutus, his Shar-Pei/mastiff mix, on a 2-mile walk through his neighborhood in western Henrico.

That and so many other things changed when he fell seriously ill on a family trip to Vermont in November 2010.

For at least 20 years, he had been disabled by a medical condition that caused episodes of syncope, or fainting. The symptoms started in the early 1980s when he was stationed in Manila while serving in the Marine Corps.

Doctors initially thought he had narcolepsy, a condition in which people fall asleep suddenly, said Charlotte Hunt, but some of the symptoms didn't fit.

The final diagnosis was a disorder that affected his blood pressure and heart, Charlotte Hunt said. The condition, known as neurally mediated syncope, is a type of autonomic nervous system disorder in which mechanisms that control involuntary body functions such as breathing and heart rate don't work properly.

"Your heart and blood pressure are supposed to work together," Charlotte Hunt said. "His is the opposite. So they give him a pill to regulate the blood pressure and to make the heart beat a little bit faster. He has a very low heart rate."

The family trip was to a goddaughter's christening. At a luncheon after the ceremony, a relative, aware of Hunt's condition, noticed him slumped in a chair and asked Charlotte if that was normal.

Charlotte Hunt said she yelled at her husband to try to rouse him, then slapped him, then thumped his chest three times. He made a long inhaling sound and then started vomiting. Someone called 911.

At the hospital, the situation was dire. He had aspirated vomit into his lungs, his wife said.

"When he did that, he chemically burned his lungs, and he was not able to breathe on his own. And he had so much substance in his lungs that he was choking," Charlotte Hunt said.

"They did not think he would make it from the emergency room to the intensive care unit, and once he got there, they didn't think he would make it through the night," she said.

He survived the night. He was sedated and in a coma for a week. Then two weeks. Charlotte Hunt said as long as imaging tests indicated he had brain activity, she was not willing to give up on him. She stayed by his side, reading and talking to him.

During the third week, he woke up.

"I woke up . unable to speak, unable to see," John Hunt said. At first he thought he was dreaming. "Then I heard my wife talking," he said.

He regained his voice, but his vision did not return. Charlotte Hunt said they were told several factors may have played a part.

"What they told me in his medical report is that he suffered great trauma in the eye, strokes behind the eyes, which killed the nerves," she said.

In addition, to keep him alive they put him on a breathing machine, she said. "The machine was as high as it could go. They think that could have possibly been a contributing factor. He also had too much pressure on the brain, where they had to go in three times and take fluid off his spine to reduce that."

Once he was stable, Hunt was transferred from the Vermont hospital to McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in South Richmond. Later, for occupational and physical therapy, he went to a private rehabilitation facility and then a nursing facility. Charlotte Hunt said they consulted specialists about his vision but were told there was nothing to be done.

"We've been to a neuro-ophthalmologist. They said to look to stem cell research," Charlotte Hunt said.

John Hunt said he took it in stride, but there were low moments.

"I figured I would find some way to make myself happy. I was still alive. I thought that was more important," Hunt said.

"I got depressed, I guess," he added. "Thinking I was going to pass out again and that that would be the end of me."

With his therapies done, John Hunt wanted to do something else to stay active. He mentioned karate. Charlotte Hunt was about to advertise for a private instructor when someone told her about Sam Justice.

Justice, who has been teaching karate for 40 years, said he was a little apprehensive but was willing to give it a try. "It's really helped me in teaching because you have to describe everything in detail," Justice said.

Hunt started in June. Back then, he took small, timid steps, which is understandable, Justice said. Over time, as his confidence grew, his moves became assertive and smooth.

"Another thing that makes it easy to teach John is that he has that ex-Marine mentality. So he's not going to give up. He pushes really hard," Justice said.

Hunt tested for his yellow belt in August. The only help from Justice was to orient him. On the mat, he had to know from memory the sequences of moves, or patterns, by number. A particular sequence or pattern could have 10 steps or techniques within it.

He is expected to test for the orange belt this month.

"I've got a lot of good reasons to just lie on the couch all day long, but I just don't do it. I can't do it," John Hunt said. "I'd rather get up and do something and I think karate is great for mind and body and everything."